


The Truth is in the Moonflower

by SilentHero



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hanahaki Disease, I promise no lesbians will die, Puns but also oblivious gay shenanigans, jamie pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27433372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentHero/pseuds/SilentHero
Summary: “Dammit now the fuckin' plants have turned on me.” Jamie cursed as moonflower petals fluttered around her like confetti; plants, one of the only things she held near and dear, now mocking her.OrJamie coughs up moonflowers after her first kiss with Dani ended with her getting shoved off. This has to mean that she was wrong, Dani must not actually like her.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 8
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

“You just got through telling me you weren’t ready for this.” She gives a self deprecating chuckle, running a callused hand over the bottom half of her face. Dani is still huffing and puffing next to her, eyes wild, like she saw a ghost- which was exactly what happened, but the gardener didn’t know that yet.

Jamie stands, wanting to put as much distance between her and the sofa where Dani sat as possible. She faintly hears the au pair stutter through an apology or some sort of explanation, but the embarrassment rushing through her ears drowns out any of what she’s saying.

She walks out of the greenhouse and into the night, sparing a glance back at Dani, “Another night maybe, another time. . . maybe.” Jamie pushed the empty promise through her lips, more for herself than the flustered blonde.

Hannah and Owen were still talking by the bonfire, well, more like Owen was slurring through some nonsensical ramblings about not having a past or future and only having the present to live in. But who could blame him? He’s coping with his mother’s death the best way he knew how.

Jamie motioned at the cook. “Oi, time to go, I don’t think that wine is gonna help you anymore than it already has.” At this, Owen stood, giving one last parting pun before lumbering off toward Jamie’s pickup.

She had already assured Hannah that Owen was in safe hands by the time the light of a dying bonfire flickered over the remorseful face of a newly returned au pair.

Giving a nod to Hannah, Jamie walked over to Owen’s side and draped one of his long arms over her shoulders.

Dani’s eyes looked almost sad when Jamie’s met them across the fire. "It's all good," she assured. 

With a small smile directed at the gravel beneath her feet, Jamie turned and guided Owen away from the manor. _That’s odd, I’m the one that oughta be sad, I’m the one who got rejected._

The drive home was uneventful, Jamie wasn’t lying when she said she knew the roads, she’d driven them for years now. She reckoned she could navigate them in total darkness, headlights be damned.

Owen had pretty much immediately dozed off, forehead resting against the window. That left Jamie to stew over what had happened in the greenhouse. She didn’t know if she could ever face the blonde again, it had been so awkward after the kiss. Jamie sighed, she usually never reads situations _that_ wrong. She had thought for sure Dani was into her, but if her reaction was anything to go by, that was not the case.

Similar thoughts haunted her mind as she steered along the winding roads out of the countryside, functioning solely on autopilot until the town of Bly slowly formed around them. 

“Sleepin’ beauty, we’re here.” She nudged Owen awake. “Home sweet home.”

Incoherent eyes blinked open. “Here. . . already?” He wondered aloud as a yawn overtook him.

Owen fumbled with his seatbelt as Jamie walked around the truck and opened the passenger door.

“You’ll be alright by yourself tonight?” He stepped out, gripping Jamie’s offered hand for support.

“Oh yeah, it’s- I’ll be okay. You don’t need to worry ‘bout me.” Owen mumbled, the long, emotional day clearly taking its toll.

They walked to the front door together before Jamie let go of the drunken cook, who swayed slightly without the reinforcement. “Alright then, give me a ring if you need anything, yeah?”

Owen nodded, unlocking and opening the door. Convinced that he had at least sobered up enough that he wouldn’t somehow burn the house down or drown in the bathroom, Jamie shoved her hands in her pockets and walked back to the still running truck.

Right before she hopped in, Owen hollered, “I ap- _peach_ -iate you being there for me today.”

She rolled her eyes at the terrible play on words, “You’re insufferable.” But a smile crept over Jamie’s features. _He’ll be okay. He’s a tough cookie- oh god, was that a fuckin’ pun?_

In fear of puns being contagious, Jamie drove off into the night.

——

Tucked in bed, sleep eluded the groundskeeper. She tossed and turned as memories replayed of the shocked look on Dani’s expression as she pushed Jamie away.

“It makes no sense,” she murmured to no one in particular, staring up at the ceiling, “She started the kiss, why for, if she didn’t feel the same?”

“This is exactly why I hangout with plants- you put in the work, flowers bloom. You get kissed by the girl, she freaks the hell out.” She covered her face with the palms of her hands and sighed, “Americans.”

She laid there for a few more minutes before a tickle in her throat elicited a dry cough. Quirking up her brow, she sat up as the coughs persisted. Gulping down the glass of water sitting on the nightstand did nothing to relieve her increasingly itchy throat. Soon tears formed in her eyes, her sides aching, until. . .

“A fucking petal?” Jamie picked up the thing in question and held it up to the moonlight streaming in from the slits in the blinds. Deep down, she already knew what was happening, but blind fingers felt around her bed trying to find a stray flower she maybe accidentally tracked in. Of course, there was no such flower, only the lone petal held between trembling digits.

“A damn moonflower petal,” she discovered upon closer inspection.

Jamie obviously knew about Hanahaki and what the consequences of one sided love were, one didn’t work with plants for majority of their life and not know about the infamous disease. The chosen plant, whatever it may be, would take root in a person’s lungs if they fell for someone that didn’t reciprocate the same feelings. It would start off with petals being coughed out, and eventually progress to whole ass flowers being choked out through narrow windpipes, slowly suffocating the host. The only way to stop it before death was if the love became mutual- no longer one sided, which, Jamie thought, was virtually impossible for her case.

“I thought you were better than this,” she glared at the fragile fragment of a moonflower, “You let down your guard and now the look at the shite you’ve start-” Coughs raked her frame as a few more petals spilled past her lips. Anger, but also dread and heartbreak swirled under her skin. 

“Dammit now the fuckin' plants have turned on me.” Jamie cursed as moonflower petals fluttered around her like confetti; plants, one of the only things she held near and dear, now mocked her.


	2. Chapter 2

She wasn’t due back at the manor for a few days, but distancing herself from the au pair did nothing for her condition, if anything the flowers were growing more and more persistent, meddling their way deeper and deeper into her lungs, squeezing the life out of her.

On her days away from the manor, Jamie didn’t have much to fill the time. She’d wake and tend to the little potted plants overtaking her living room, maybe try to make lunch only to be reminded of how shite of a cook she is, then flop on the couch to watch tv or read a book. She’d check in on Owen once or twice a day, making sure he was taking care of himself and hadn’t gotten hopelessly drunk again. Other that those quick, obligatory phone calls, she had had no other contact with the manor’s staff. For good reason too, Jamie was locked in a constant battle to get her mind off of Dani, but as soon as she started to daydream, her mind would always stray back to the blonde.

So, later that evening, she decided to the pub below her flat for one too many drinks, but that only made her fantasize about the blonde even more. Her delicate features under the moonlight, her soft skin beneath Jamie’s fingertips, her lips on hers- _ah, okay, I reckon that’s enough of that._ A cough and flurry of petals follows.

When the bartender shoots her a curious glance as she stifles another cough with a clenched fist, she levels with a glare, stamping out any probing question forming on the man’s lips.

She leaves the pub that night with a light dusting of flowers around her lone stool and rows of empty glasses littering the bar. At least the scent of moonflower cuts through the sharp smell of alcohol on her breath.

Jamie unlocked the front door and shuffled in on unsteady legs, throwing the switch as she passed, illuminating the flat-turned-floral-shop. Each step caused a little patch of petals to flutter about, tickling her toes. She had long given up on trying to manage the petals, every time she vacuumed or swept, more petals forced themselves out to blanket the apartment.

“I thought these fuckin’ flowers were rare, goddamn things are _everywhere._ ” She grumbled. “Tomorrow I’ll be away from this shite, back to the blessed non-moonflower plants-” _Back to Dani, you mean._ Her little internal dialogue interrupted her boozy state.

Jamie’s eyes widened as she doubled over and hacked out something much larger than the relatively small petals she had grown used to. It hit the floor with a sickening _thump._

_“_ What the _hell_ is that?” Slowly, a cold hand reached out and gingerly picked up the spit covered object. She had already knew what it was before turning it toward the light, the shape all too familiar to the gardener. “I’m coughing up whole ass flowers now, huh? That’s what we are doin now?”

Despite its sogginess, the flower still looked remarkably beautiful, apparently the garden growing within the gardener was flourishing. “If I had known all I had to do was fall for an American instead of working my arse off tryna grow these damn plants . . .” She trailed off, a broken smile painting her lips.

She tossed the once treasured object back down on the bed of petals beneath her.

That night, as she crawled into bed, the groundskeeper found moonflowers stuck to the soles of her feet and her dreams transfixed on the au pair that unknowingly doomed her to a poetic death.

———

The sun peaked over the rolling hills as a single pickup truck wound its way through the countryside. Jamie had had a good morning, considering the circumstances. She’d managed to make a halfway decent breakfast and somehow convinced herself that she’s perfectly fine with an early death, had fully accepted it even.

After such an enlightening experience, she made tea with shaky hands, where it now sloshed around in a thermos that had fallen from the passenger seat and was rolling around on the car floor.

Of course, Jamie was on the verge of a complete and total breakdown, her fragile mental state as concrete as a house of cards.

Jamie’s philosophy was that if she just threw herself into her work routine and ignored any and all things associated with a certain blonde, she would be fine. The manor grounds were expansive, and the chances of two people busy with their own jobs running into each other were small.

She had made it all the way past the extravagant rod iron gates and nearly to her sanctuary of flora when the first cough stirred deep it Jamie’s chest. She parked her truck and leaned back into the worn cushion of the seat; taking deep breaths like a child trying to hide her coughs and convince her parents that she really wasn’t sick, only the person she was trying to persuade was herself.

A small cough slipped past her lips, but she bit back anything else that threatened to undo all the progress Jamie had made.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m _fine,_ ” she whispered as she got out and forced herself into a casual but not entirely natural looking pace to the greenhouse.

She nearly ripped the door off its hinges before slamming it shut behind her, now protected from nonexistent prying eyes that might see the trial of moonflowers she left everywhere she went.

Jamie didn’t make it two steps before her eyes landed on one thing she forgot about, the damn couch, if the place of their first kiss wasn’t a blaring reminder of Dani then nothing was.

“Sh-shite,” Jamie squeaked and scurried over to the various flora lining the walls.

_Focus on the plants. Focus on the plants._ She repeated to herself like a mantra. _I just need to keep myself distracted. . . Look plants, wow that’s a nice leaf, yeah it’s downright great. It’s . . . it’s green and-_ pain ripped through Jamie as her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

She gasped for air between coughs as flowers clogged her airways. Something was different this time, it was like the flowers were sticking to her throat. When Jamie tasted the telltale metallic tang in her mouth, the pit of her stomach dropped. Her hands moved away from her lips stained a dark crimson, a stark contrast to the porcelain innocence of the petals.

Her vision swirled as tears spilled down her cheeks, mingling with the blood around her mouth and dripping to the cement below. The disease was progressing much faster than Jamie had anticipated, she thought she had so much time left.

In her frantic state, she had just enough time to catch a glimpse of blonde hair headed toward her.

“Fuck,” she raced to rinse off her hands and face in the sink. The pink tinted water and crumpled petals draining away any evidence of Jamie’s lovesick heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading, feedback is always welcome. The third chapter should be up relatively soon, stay tuned!


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